A Call to the Camino de Santiago

It's a call that starts more like a whisper.  One day you are going about your life and then some how, some way you hear of the Camino de Santiago.  From that moment your world and life start to change.  Perhaps a slight shift at first, but then it grows into a calling you can't ignore.  At least thats the way it happened for me.

Perhaps I should go back in time a little and tell you how I heard of the Camino-The Way.  It was around the end of  2013.  My good friend said he had seen a program on tv about a pilgrimage across Spain. He said he was very intrigued by it and looked for books on Kindle to learn more.  He shared with me the name of the book and I downloaded it as well.  We live apart and one way we stay connected is to share books, or read the books at the same time.

When I started to read the book, I was captivated. The book was a fictional book based up the Camino de Santiago. The Path by Malcolm McKay.  It follows a group of individuals as they set out on their way to walk the Way of St James. When we finished that book we went on to read a book about a woman who had walked. Somewhere during that month of reading those books I felt I wanted to do it.  It was odd at first. I started saying things to my friend such as  "i know its crazy but, I think I'd like to do that" and "would you walk 500 miles with me?" to use the Proclaimers song.

Over the last few years my friend and I have met and done an "adventure". One year was Ireland, one year was mountain biking in Scotland. Another time was in Wales where we climbed Snowden Mountain.  So when it came to our adventure for 2014 I said one day we should walk Hadrians Wall Path in England as a trial to doing the Camino.  With out hesitation my friend agreed.

Early in the year of 2014 I was talking with my sister Donna. We were talking about getting together at a family get together and making plans for that. We just got to chatting and over the course of the phone call she asks me if I had heard of "The Camino de Santiago". Just out of the blue.  When I said I did and that I had been reading about it, she told me that she was thinking of doing the Camino as well. What are the chances of us, both over the same time period, living across the country from each other and not in routine contact to have this same inspiration.

During her visit to my home later in the year we spent a good amount of time talking about our calling to do the pilgrimage. It was inspiring to see the light in her eye and the excitement as she spoke about it.  To me that was another sign that I was on the right path and should do this.

So over the course of the year, and after we completed Hadrians wall walk, we began to make some plans. I believe my question  to my friend was "if you could only do a week, what part of the camino would you like to do first" His response was "the first part, from St Jean Pied de Port."  So that was the plan. We would have time where we didn't talk much about it and then it would come back up in conversation. Not always in the foreground but always there waiting for the right time.

 At the beginning of 2015 as we started to plan our holiday adventure we decided we would definitely do the Camino.  Mid January we had our time book off from work and Airline flights booked. We were on our way.

Now it is February and we will begin our training. After all we need to be able to carry a pack and walk 10 to 15 miles a day by June.  This blog will follow that training and our Camino Experience.